Friday, July 30, 2010

More Proof Christians are a Mixed Bag

William Wilberforce, Renewer of Society, July 30, 1833

He campaigned for tirelessly for the abolition of the slavery and the slave trade. Every year for 18 years he introduced a measure to do away with slavery. Every year it was defeated. He kept introducing it. He would not back down. He would not shut up. He would not go away. Finally days before his death, all slavery in the British Territories was outlawed. A year later 800,000 slaves were freed.

Wilberforce also campaigned for the welfare of animals. He founded the royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

And yet he opposed unions and women's rights. He was probably one of those moralistic do-gooders, common to the Victorian age who looked down on many of the people he worked to "help" and often much of the "help" was not so helpful.